"Friends and supporters of the acclaimed author and historian and his mother, Barbara (aka Grandma B), are asked to attend his appeal against extradition to Austria. He has been unlawfully sectioned under mental health legislation in Austria by a single judge who has never met him, and WITHOUT A MEDICAL EXAMINATION. They want to incarcerate him forever in a mental institution and force him to take psychiatric drugs because he has been speaking out publicly about public corruption in York and North Yorkshire (places that he refers to as `Savile Country`)..."

"It is no surprise that North Yorkshire Police and the others have been desperate to silence him (at huge cost to the public purse)."

…"So what is going on here and who is involved? The main abuser is employed by local social services. He, his wife and daughter have provided support services to the local police. They all know who the isolated old people in their area with assets are. It would seem they are systematically targeting defenceless old people and seizing control of their assets before bundling them off into a council home, then selling their assets. The cash then gets laundered through a dodgy private care company as `care fees` and the police officers, social workers, council officials and local politicians involved then pocket the money. The perfect crime, as who is going to listen to a confused, old lady in a home, whose contact with the outside world they are controlling? This is rampant corruption and serious, organised crime. Nobody in authority in North Yorkshire will respond to correspondence and deal with this case..."https://grandmabarbara.wordpress.com/

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS FOUNDATION TRUST
"Teaching trust failing to comply with end of life court ruling
27 JANUARY, 2017 BY SHAUN LINTERN""Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust issued with requirement notices by the CQC."
"Half of `do not attempt resuscitation` orders seen by inspectors were incorrectly completed by staff."
"Court of Appeal ruling in 2014 created a new legal right for patients to be consulted over DNAR decisions."
"One of the country’s largest teaching trusts is failing to comply with a judgement following a court case it lost in 2014, which set a precedent for the rights for patients receiving end of life care.""The Care Quality Commission has issued Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust with two requirement notices after inspectors last year found half of the `do not attempt resuscitation` forms they examined were not completed correctly."Addenbrooke's"The trust lost a Court of Appeal case in 2014.
They also found a lack of evidence that staff were discussing end of life care with patients – an issue that formed the basis for legal action against the trust in 2014 by the family of Janet Tracey.""In 2014, the family took their case against CUH to the Court of Appeal, which ruled it was a breach of her human rights for a doctor to put DNAR form in place without speaking to Ms Tracey first. This set a legal precedent for patients to be consulted about decisions involving CPR.""During its inspections last September the CQC also found a lack of evidence that patients’ mental capacity was being properly assessed before making end of life care decisions.""The CQC rated the trust as good overall and it came out of special measures last week.""In the report for the trust’s Addenbrooke’s Hospital, the CQC said 10 of the 20 DNAR forms it saw were completed incorrectly.""It said: `These included lack of mental capacity assessments for those patients deemed to lack capacity, lack of information regarding the discussions held with patients and/or their families and not discussing the DNACPR with the patient, even though it stated they had capacity`.""The CQC said the trust’s DNAR policy cited the Tracey judgement. `This meant the trust’s DNACPR policy and the Tracey legislation was not being adhered to. The legal process of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 was also not being followed,` the report said.""The requirement notices need the trust to ensure robust monitoring of end of life care through local audit; and to make sure in complies with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.""The CQC rated the trust’s end of life care as good overall, with the standard of caring rated outstanding and it said staff went the extra mile to fulfil patient wishes.""Ms Tracey’s daughter, Kate Masters, said: `Addenbrooke’s hospital should be acutely aware of the implications of not following their own DNACPR policy, national guidance and legislation, more than any other hospital.""`It feels like a slight on my mum’s memory. They have never apologised to my dad or the wider family and this CQC finding indicates to me that they appear to be continuing with the stance they held throughout the court case that they did nothing wrong. In my opinion, Addenbrooke’s has learned nothing`.""She added that the DNAR form currently used by the trust formed the basis of a new national form due to be rolled out nationally. Concerns have been raised that the design of the new form could lead to families being excluded from end of life care decisions.""A CUH spokeswoman said the trust took the issue seriously and claimed to have improved the way families were involved.""She said the trust no longer used standalone forms but instead used a `comprehensive` electronic record for all treatments.""She added: `The CQC have identified areas for further improvement with our electronic DNACPR forms and we are continuing to work on this. In our most recent audit into resuscitation decisions, 99 per cent of the electronic forms had been fully discussed with patients or their carers.""`In addition, since our inspection we have developed an end of life care strategy which builds on the very important relationship with our patients and their families at this time`."https://www.facebook.com/groups/413517265364333/permalink/1243720679010650/

Saturday, 5 November 2016

"England and Wales has suffered the biggest annual rise in deaths for almost fifty years, according to new figures which last night prompted warnings of an urgent crisis in care of the elderly.""Health experts last night called for an urgent investigation after statistics revealed a five per cent increase in mortality rates in just one year.""Advisors to Public Health England (PHE) warned of a `strong and flashing` warning light, and said trends over the last four years suggest the rise in deaths may now be the highest since World War Two." T"hey said the elderly were now bearing the brunt of a growing crisis in the NHS and cuts to social care, with women suffering the most.""The preliminary data from the Office of National Statistics shows that in just one year, there were 5.4 per cent more deaths in England – equating to almost 27,000 extra deaths.""The year-on-year rise, to a total of 528,340 deaths, is the highest since 1968. There were more deaths last year than any year since 2003. Figures show that numbers of deaths have fallen steadily since the 70s, but that trend began to reverse in 2011...""Professor Danny Dorling, from Oxford University, an advisor to PHE on older age life expectancy, said: `When we look at 2015, we are not just looking at one bad year. We have seen excessive mortality - especially among women - since 2012. I suspect the largest factor here is cuts to social services - to meals on wheels, to visits to the elderly`...""Health officials said some of the spike in deaths last year might be explained by the failure of the flu vaccine last winter, which worked in just one in three cases."http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/12158930/Biggest-annual-rise-in-deaths-for-almost-fifty-years-prompts-warnings-of-crisis-in-elderly-care.html

There is no acknowledgement of the Liverpool Care Pathway or its equivalent still being practiced in hospitals and now in care homes too.You`d think health officials would have mentioned it - they certainly know about it - rather than making excuses.

"Last week, NHS Digital released figures showing that the backlog of referrals under the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS) regime had soared from 75,000 last year, to over 100,000 by April 2016 (101,750, to be exact). These burgeoning figures come two years after the Supreme Court's ruling in Cheshire West [2014] UKSC 19, which clarified that the threshold for cases requiring DOLS authorisations was lower than had previously been thought - resulting in a ten-fold rise in applications.""Local authorities have been struggling to meet their legal obligations since the ruling, and the growing backlog makes clear that they are no closer to grappling effectively with the problem. Today, Community Care magazine has reported that the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) has proposed a plan to clear the backlog: use of an 'on the papers', desktop assessment - in other words, to assess without seeing the affected person. ADASS claim that a desktop assessment is `more proportionate` in certain cases, and they have proposed that only `low risk` cases should be suitable for this short-cut, including cases in which relatives do not object and there are no safeguarding concerns.""This proposal is deeply concerning. How can an effective best interests assessment be undertaken without meeting the person? ADASS's response to concerns that the desktop approach would remove a critical check and balance in the DOLS process has been to claim that it is better than the status quo - at the moment, many cases are not being assessed at all, in any way, because of the backlog." "But this is a wholly unsatisfactory response. The current failure to conduct assessments, and the size of the backlog, shows a catastrophic, widespread failure on the part of local authorities to comply with their legal obligations. This is a failure which is seen at local level, but central Government must shoulder the lion's share of the blame. The backlog results, in large part, from swingeing cuts to local authority budgets over the past number of years, and a failure on the part of central Government to respond to the Cheshire West judgment by ensuring local authorities have adequate resources to comply with their obligations to vulnerable individuals deprived of their liberty.""This is a common theme for local authorities. A decade ago, many local authorities under financial pressure who found it difficult to comply with their section 20, Children Act 1989 obligations to homeless children responded by attempting to curtail the circumstances in which they would provide such accommodation. We can't be expected to provide accommodation for all of these children, and to fund the knock-on leaving care obligations, was the refrain; the money was not there. But in fact they could be expected to provide the accommodation. They were statutorily obliged to do so. An exasperated House of Lords told them so - twice, in fact, as the message did not sink in the first time (R (M) v. LB of Hammersmith and Fulham [2008] UKHL 14 andR (G) v Southwark LB Council [2009] UKHL 26)." "Similarly, ADASS's pragmatic solution - despite its well-meaning motivation - does not ensure that local authorities comply with their legal obligations under DOLS. A desktop review is not a meaningful best interests assessment. A central principle of DOLS and the wider Mental Capacity Act regime is that assessments should be person-centred and consider the unique situation of each individual. A desktop process, without meeting the person, can hardly be said to be person-centred. What ADASS is proposing will also suffer from the `squeaky wheel gets the most oil` problem - those with articulate relatives raising objections will be properly assessed, whereas others are more likely to have only a cursory, paper review. Risks and concerns will undoubtedly be missed. ADASS should be calling on central Government to urgently address the funding deficit which has placed local authorities in this invidious position, and calling on local authorities to comply with their clear legal obligations to some of the most vulnerable in society."

Sunday, 12 June 2016

So now technology is to be used to predict frailty. No thought is given to treating the sick, just making predictions. This is similar to hunting for the 1% of 65 year-olds with dementia - no cure, just find them.

All the better, the researchers believe, to manage the population who might require medical assistance some time in the future. How about getting them to talk about where they would prefer to die or offering them `assisted dying` instead?

The above photograph shows Mrs E Kilbride on her last day of freedom at the Eaglesham wind farm where she was enjoying a trip away from the care home she hated. Two days later it was alleged by social workers that the GP who worked for the care home had judged Mrs Kilbride to lack capacity to make her own decisions. In their wisdom the professionals decided on Mrs Kilbride`s behalf not to take her for her hospital appointment and in five weeks she was dead. Those five weeks must have been the most wretched of Mrs Kilbride`s life because she was not allowed to see her visitor, got no more fresh air and exercise, and had no further contact with the outside world. In the meantime all of her wordly goods were taken away from her leaving Mrs Kilbride with not a single memory of her former life. Most people would judge such treatment of a vulnerable elderly person as inhumane and cruel. Not the carers involved with Mrs Kilbride who claimed that they worked in Mrs Kilbride`s best interests.

This is a true story which is a sign of the times. It reveals how the notion of `best interests` can be abused by professionals to justify the utmost cruelty and turn reality on its head. Actually it is about power and the abuse of power and an agenda that at the moment only a few can see. This is a wake up call.

Tuesday, 3 May 2016

The worlds first G8 dementia summit was held in London on 11 December 2013, where the alarming statement was made that dementia affects an estimated 35 million people worldwide, a figure set to almost double every 20 years. The summit brought together ministers, researchers, pharmaceutical companies and charities...[1]

At a meeting later in Switzerland, March 2015, called Global Action Against Dementia, Jeremy Hunt made the even more alarming statement: "What we need to do today is to bring the world together to fight dementia. We have to do that because it is a global threat." [2]

"The Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that the first national Dementia Research Institute (DRI) in the UK is to be led by the MRC."

"The DRI, which will bring together world leading expertise in discovery science in the fight against dementia, is set to receive up to £150m in funding and be fully functional by 2020." [3]

So this is getting serious. Is this good news for dementia sufferers and their families? Probably not, not when world leaders, charities and the big pharmaceutical companies are getting together and there is more money to be made in the management of dementia than in the cure.

Scotland has its own National Dementia Strategy which will be published later this year in 2016. [4] In Proposal for Scotland’s National Dementia Strategy 2016-19, the Scottish Government says it will "continue to focus on its national and local human-rights based approach to improving dementia diagnosis rates..".So they see the early diagnosis of dementia as a human right. But what does that really mean? [5]

The Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act allows those with a dementia diagnosis to be stripped of their capacity and hence all their human rights along with that diagnosis.. It allows social services to make decisions in the incapacitated adult`s `best interests`. As documented here in the case of Mrs E Kilbride, it means adults may be transported against their will to a care home, followed by the loss of their home, possessions and savings.

But it is even worse than that:

The government wants to prevent avoidable hospitalisation of people with dementia because cure and treatment is for others, not for the demented. There should be a greater focus on `anticipatory` planning, that is, anticipating - predicting death - and responding accordingly. No anxiety about the Liverpool Care Pathway, or any of the other equally bad pathways, is demonstrated here.

Monday, 7 March 2016

"UK Column News is worth looking at because it reports on the government`s intention that dementia statistics should rise to two million by 2050.""They want two million people to be diagnosed as dementia sufferers by 2050.""They want GPs to increase the diagnosis. They are going to make it easier and more profitable for GPs to diagnose people with dementia. ""Of course, once (people) have been diagnosed with dementia, their property can be taken from them, or literally stolen in some cases.""The UK Column mentions the document Prime Minister`s Challenge on Dementia 2020 in which they don`t talk about curing dementia; they don`t talk about research into dementia; they are talking about living with dementia... What they are doing here is creating a revenue stream for private corporations that will work in the pharmaceutical industry and health care and so on - because what they are going to have is people who are living on a long term basis with dementia .... They are putting sixty million pounds a year into this."http://www.ukcolumn.org/

About Me

I must admit that if I had to do it all over again I`d probably do it a whole lot differently. For a start, I would never have planted that climbing rose on the fence next to the path. It sure began to annoy my neighbour when they scraped past it on their way to their own plot, and it was impossible to weed at its base when Spring came and everything started to sprout. The thorns were deadly.

I would never have planted that willow tree - never knew they could grow THAT fast, certainly not in the top left corner overhanging the fence between me and the plot holder in front of me. Grows beautifully, blooms wonderfully, and then cuts out the sun, so they wanted to chop it down.

The ivy around my hut was a bit of a disaster. It seemed romantic at the time but it spreads fast, weaves its way between cracks and clings on ferociously. How do you throw it back, chop it down,

drag it out, without destroying your hut? Meanwhile it is slowly destroying your hut an inch at a time.